Is There A Science Behind Comfort Food?

’Tis the season for comfort food. Or at least so it seems these days. The festive period usually marks the inundation of turkey leftovers, roast potatoes and too many chocolate sharing boxes to manage. However, with such a year under our belt (yes, we’re looking at you 2020), it seems that now, more than ever, the season for comfort food is here to stay for many.

Comfort food is itself, a very personal thing. What may spark peak comfort for me may not have the same effect on you. Comfort food can look like cheese on toast, fresh and bubbling out of the oven and dotted with a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. It can also look like a bowl of pasta Carbonara; silky, smooth and best enjoyed snuggled on the sofa. It could also look like sticky toffee pudding, pillowy soft and laced with unctuous caramel.

But what is it exactly about these foods that make us feel so comforted?

Well, it’s all down to the reward system within our brains. A group of structures within the brain are activated only by rewarding or reinforcing stimuli and thus, releasing a hit of dopamine. Foods high in fat, sugar or salt can all elevate a person’s mood by tapping into the brain’s reward system and providing a temporary sense of wellbeing in doing so. In fact, some foods activate the same reward regions of the brain pertaining to drug addiction.

The reason why many of us crave comfort foods during particularly hard times is that the instant gratification one can glean from these foods often draws out positive emotions. Whilst these emotions may be short-lived, many of us can easily fall into the habit of emotional eating in order to chase that temporary ‘high’. Although a bad day may equal the need for comfort food for many of us, studies have actually shown that these foods rarely give us the lasting good mood we’d expect from them. Due to their nature of being typically high in carbohydrates, our choice of comfort food can very easily lend itself to a quick crash of emotions and result in feelings of lethargy or sadness.

However, in these strained pandemic times, it’s worth looking at how comfort food not only sparks something within our brains but also retains memories and a sense of nostalgia many have craved over the past year. With many of us unable to connect and see family or friends over the holidays, it’s natural to want the dishes we cook to reflect the sense of security we’ve felt with certain individuals. Whether it’s cooking a beloved family recipe or baking something that evokes memories, multiple studies have proven that those with healthy familial relationships are more likely to reach for comforting foods on the days they feel lonely.

Whilst comfort foods may include a variety of pre-packaged snacks, for many of us comfort lies in the homemade dishes that have permeated our childhoods and/or home life.

In a poll of 2000 people, Brits cited fish and chips, a bacon sandwich and a roast dinner as some of their top favourite comfort foods.

Of course, such results would look different the world over but answers such as these highlight the general simplicity of such comfort. Not needing hours of preparation, a long list of ingredients or anything too expensive, some of life’s best comfort foods are literally as simple as some bacon between two slices of bread. The results also underline just how much we connect food with memories and our sensory system. Many dishes included (such as shepherd’s pie, beef stew and dumplings) are usually enjoyed around a family dinner table with our loved ones around and would envelop a house in rich cooking aromas.

It doesn’t take an article such as this one to underline how emotional the past 10 months have been for many so I won’t go into obvious detail. Amidst the early days of it all, we all witnessed a ‘return to the kitchen’ where many of us took a little longer, were a little more mindful and generally enjoyed cooking up a storm. Now, with a mix of hesitation and exasperation permeating the air around the UK, many of us are too downtrodden to venture into the kitchen with the same childlike excitement that previous months saw.

As we edge further into January and are bombarded by fitness plans, diets and nudges to “rethink” the way we think about food, maybe it’s more productive to think about how we incorporate pockets of comfort into our everyday instead. Whether it’s taking a morning laptop break to stir up a pot of porridge oats reminiscent of school days or asking a relative for one of their infamous recipes, comfort is clearly not a one-size-fits-all approach. And it shouldn’t be I think, that’s where the joy in it lies.

Your comfort food doesn’t have to be full of carb-loaded treats (or it could be, no judgement here). One of mine is Pad Thai, purely because it’s one of my mum’s signatures. It’s a perfect mix of sour tamarind, mild chilli heat, salty fish sauce and addictive crunch from peanuts and fresh vegetables. The comfort of each dish lies in the personality of it and quite frankly, is something I don’t think we should feel ‘guilty’ for consuming.

Its very purpose as a dish is to comfort you, after all.